


Strange Boy

by actuallyronanlynch



Series: Excelsior [1]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-20
Updated: 2016-10-20
Packaged: 2018-08-22 22:34:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8303686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actuallyronanlynch/pseuds/actuallyronanlynch
Summary: September, freshman year.





	

Adam had aspired to go to college his whole life. For years and years, Adam had dreamed of going away to school in a different state, of leaving behind his dirt-coloured hometown and his dirt-coloured life.

At seventeen, Adam moved out on his own, and throughout his final year of high school, his dreams of going away to college had wavered very precariously. Senior year was a blur of work and homework and hour spent awake; Adam had worked three jobs on top of the eight classes he had taken throughout the year, and the exhaustion he had felt that year was incomparable to anything else he'd endured in his life. He remembered thinking,  _Is it worth it? What if I don't get enough scholarships?_

He refused to become another casualty to his middle-of-nowhere town, refused to be another  _could-have-been_.

He worked himself nearly to death, and he secured enough scholarships to go to away to school. He left and never looked back.

\---

When Adam packed up all of his belongings and drove to college in his shitty tri-colour car at the end of the summer, he felt a strange mix of accomplishment and relief. He made it; he made it on his  _own_ , and he was free of the town that had kept him as its prisoner his whole life. He wondered, despite the obvious cliché, if this was the feeling snakes had when they shed their skin, or when birds took flight for the first time. He felt as if he was finally awake after being trapped in a recurring dream for years.

The ending of summer also brought about an ending to the past chapters of Adam's life. He had a chance to start over, to put his past behind him, and to finally be able to live free of the fear of succumbing to the  _nothingness_ of his hometown.

This was his chance to shape his entire future.

\---

The first friend that Adam made at school was the daughter of a psychic, and she was at least a good ten inches shorter than him. She lived on his floor in residence, and she seemed just as displeased by the rowdy, drunken behaviour their floormates exhibited during orientation week as he was.

They sat together in Blue's room on the fifth night after moving into residence, going over their schedules together and Google Mapping the locations of the buildings on campus. Blue's roommate, Cialina, was out partying with their other floormates, so they had the room to themselves. A song that Blue had selected and Adam didn't recognise played faintly from her computer speakers, and she clicked distractedly on her trackpad as she switched between Google Maps and her class schedule.

"Wait, what building was your first class on Monday in again?" Blue asked, biting the inside of her cheek as she scrolled through her schedule.

"Stirling Hall, the physics building," Adam said, leaning over slightly so he could better see Blue's laptop screen.

"Oh, nice. I have stats in Abbott. We should grab breakfast and then walk to class together."

"Sure," Adam agreed with a small smile. Blue was an environmental biology major and a gender studies minor; the two seemed like an odd combination to Adam, but somehow, it suited Blue perfectly.

"If you're not ready to go by 7:45, I'm gonna break into your room and wake your ass up."

"I don't think Luke would appreciate that," Adam said, biting his lip to hold back a laugh.

"Dude, I don't care about your roommate. If you're not out of your room by quarter to eight, I'm leaving without you."

"Duly noted," Adam said, shaking his head slightly as he typed in the name of the building that his chemistry class was in into Google.

\---

Richard Gansey was intriguing.

It was hard for Adam to pinpoint exactly what was so intriguing about him, because there were so many peculiar aspects that made up Richard Gansey.

He refused to answer to Richard. He seemed completely repulsed by the name, and implored (in the most polite way Adam had ever seen) that he be addressed as Gansey.

He had a double major in history and English with a minor in classics, which both impressed and terrified Adam. He had no idea how Gansey would keep up with all of the readings he would be assigned.

He never really seemed to stop talking, even throughout the Latin lectures that they sat together in. How they had initially ended up sitting together, Adam wasn't sure of, but he couldn't really remember a time when his Latin lectures weren't accentuated by Gansey's whispered comments and the clicking of the keyboard on his Macbook as he took notes.

Richard Gansey was also fairly intimidating, from an intellectual standpoint.

And then there was his companion of choice: Ronan Lynch. He was just intimidating in general.

Ronan sat on the other side of Gansey in their Latin class, though he didn't talk nearly half as much as the other boy. Mostly he just looked tired and bored, occasionally taking notes, but predominantly doodling in the margins of his notebook.

Adam had inferred through various conversations that Ronan and Gansey had gone to high school together, and that Ronan was a fine arts major. He hadn't been given this information outright, so he was really just assuming at best.

Ronan was compelling in a very different way than Gansey was. He didn't seem like the quiet type, but he rarely spoke in class aside from irregular whispers to Gansey and infrequent answers to the professor's grammar-related questions. Adam noted that he was quite good at Latin, and assumed it wasn't his first time taking a class in it.

"Has your faculty hosted any more events yet?" Gansey asked as he slung his bag over his shoulder, waiting as Adam stuffed his notebook into his own backpack.

"Not recently. I think I've gotten a couple emails about some socials, but I still have to check the times and dates," Adam replied.

"My inbox in full of event notices," Gansey said, clicking his tongue in what Adam assumed was mild irritation. "I swear I've gotten at least ten of them, if not more."

"That's because you're a part of three faculties, Dick," Ronan interjected, looking deadly as ever in his leather jacket and boots.

"What about you, Ronan?" Gansey questioned, turning the conversation on the other boy, much to his dismay.

"I haven't really checked my email. I'm sure there's some kind of art bullshit being hosted," Ronan said. Ah, so he was an art major.

"Don't you want to  _go_ to any of them?"Gansey said, using a tone that sounded oddly like a parent trying to persuade a fussy child into doing what they wanted. Adam coughed into his fist, masking a laugh he couldn't suppress. Ronan shot him a look before turning back to Gansey. 

"It's probably just gonna be pretentious douche bags overanalysing the art that's on display in the school gallery. Can we leave, now? I'm fucking starving."

Gansey rolled his eyes and Adam snickered, but the trio headed out of the lecture hall in the direction of the cafeteria nevertheless.

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is the first piece in the college AU series I'm working on! I don't want them all to be in chronological order, but some of them might end up being closer time-wise than others. It'll vary a bit.  
> (Also a heads up that this is probably gonna have a lot of references to my own university because I'm an unoriginal trash bag).  
> Anyway, hit me up on [Tumblr](http://actuallyronanlynch.tumblr.com/) if you wanna talk Pynch.  
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated <3


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